The Normal Mutant
by Eternity's Voice
Summary: A mutant moves into Bayville, but doesn't join the X-Men or Magneto. She just comes to school...in metal skin. How long can a girl who just wants to be normal survive in Bayville? Set exclusively in the POV of X-Evo characters.
1. Thank You

The Normal Mutant by Eternity's Voice  
  
***  
  
Disclaimer: I do not own X-Men Evolution...yet. Marvel, there is no use resisting. Your property will soon belong to me.  
  
.  
  
Duncan (AN: Yes, I know I wrote Duncan. Get over it.)  
  
. .  
  
Duncan drove towards school. The leaves were just beginning to fall, and it seemed that most of them were content to fall into his passenger seat. Red leaves instead of a redhead, it was a change. He hadn't really taken time to stop and say "she's gone now." It still hit him sometimes, being without her. Duncan was a people person, he didn't hide that. He was a team player. He laughed.  
  
"Just go and say it, Duncan. You're a jock, an attention junkie." He flashed a smile into the rearview mirror, and then let out a disgusted sigh.  
  
Eyes back on the road, Duncan berated the reflection he knew was waiting for him. "You're a sight, you know that? Tall, tan blond..." He ran a hand through his hair and spared a glance at the golden strand that came loose. It was a rich toned and thick hair, glinting in the morning light before the October wind carried it away.  
  
"...blue eyed, muscular, handsome, rich, a star on both the academic and football field.yeah. And do you know what else you are: arrogant, conceited, and self-centered. Whenever you start thinking about someone else, it always comes right back to you.  
  
"Jean's gone now. It's your...my fault. She needed support and I went and turned into my dad. Her problem...right. I had no right to say that, of all people.  
  
The leaves rustled, as if in agreement. His teeth clenched. Jean would have been quiet. She was like that: a study in serenity. Her words were never useless chatter, but important and worth noticing. Jean didn't fidget or bounce around like some girls. She just slowly toyed with a pencil or some other small object absentmindedly. Duncan never minded the quiet.  
  
There was a presence to Jean that filled up space and silence. Maybe it was an effect of her mutant power; maybe it was her personality; maybe it was something else. Whatever it was, it was calming.  
  
Unlike the leaves, which were doing a credible impression of rats scrabbling around behind a wall. A stop sign appeared up the road. "Oh, finally!" At the four-way intersection, Duncan dumped out the leaves. They spilled onto the side of the road, leaving the seat empty...again.  
  
He watched a car on the other street drive by him, and then another. With a groan, he sank back into the seat. Twenty minutes down that road was school. Classes were a breeze and football made him feel alive. It was all those moments in between. The dirty looks and the jibes, the fear, it was all unbearable.  
  
.  
  
"Hey. You aren't going to Bayville High School, are you?"  
  
The wind had masked the sound of the motorcycle's arrival. It wasn't a Harley, but some quieter foreign machine. It still startled Duncan to see a girl on a motorcycle next to him, for all appearances showing up out of nowhere.  
  
"Where else do you think I would be going?" He despised the sarcastic tone of his voice.  
  
The helmet clad girl cocked her head. "There's no need to get snippy with me. I just need directions, being the new girl. If you don't mind, I'm going to follow you."  
  
Duncan couldn't make out her face through the visor, but her voice was pleasant. It sounded a bit silvery, if such a thing was possible. "Yeah...yeah, I don't mind. I'm Duncan."  
  
"Anita," was her reply. He started driving again, and, instead of following behind, she brought the motorcycle to the other side of the median and drove along side his car. Seeing his look, Anita laughed and brought the bike closer. A car appeared around a curve down the road and she edged back behind him, let it pass, and then returned to the wrong side of the road.  
  
"You're going to get yourself killed!" She popped a wheelie and shouted back, "Your point? I hate following behind people and I can't very well go ahead of you. Besides, this way we can talk."  
  
"About what? How you're going to get me killed too?"  
  
"Well, we have to start somewhere. Do you want me to hit you, or will the car that swerves to avoid me do? Really Duncan, you are such a baby."  
  
She avoided the oncoming car and swung back over again.  
  
"Tell you what. When we get to curves and hills, anything where I can't see ahead too far, I'll get back behind you. Does that make you feel better?"  
  
"No, but I can't see getting you to do any less."  
  
"How do you know? We've only known each other for two minutes."  
  
"I know, but that's hardly enough time to know I'm a baby either."  
  
"You have a point. How about a truce? I'm only reckless and you're only cautious. We'll rub off on each other and become nice, normal people."  
  
"Deal! As long as it isn't our paint jobs we're rubbing off."  
  
'What the hell are you doing, Matthews? You don't even know what this Anita looks like and you're acting like best buddies.'  
  
He glanced at the rider. Whatever was under the leather was shapely. The helmet at least showed that Anita had some sense of being mortal. A glimmer caught his eye. Her hands were covered in some shiny material.  
  
"Those are interesting gloves."  
  
Her head swiveled. "What?"  
  
"I didn't say anything." Duncan hated repeating himself. It made him feel weak and insignificant, that people weren't listening to him the first time on purpose.  
  
"Sorry, my mistake. How far are we from this school of yours?"  
  
He'd been driving on autopilot. Duncan looked ahead and spotted that familiar, cursed bend in the road far in the distance. "That turn up ahead will put us right on the school's street."  
  
"Shouldn't there be more traffic? This lane is nearly deserted. But on the other hand, yours is deader than highway road kill."  
  
"It's too early for people to be driving to school. Most kids, they don't show up for another half-hour. They tend to avoid this route anyway."  
  
"Why? It's a nice road: no sharp turn, decent speed limits, and its in good repair. It should be crawling with kiddies. What else could it be? Someone didn't die here, did they?"  
  
Duncan stared.  
  
"Okay, no pedestrian corpses. Is there some story about a curse?"  
  
Her voice grew a little reminiscent.  
  
"Back home, there is this stream, gorgeous thing really, but nobody goes near it. People even avoid talking about it. Everyone knows the legend though, somehow. Years ago, a demoness' baby slipped from her arms as she fled from the demon trying to destroy it. The babe fell into the stream, damning the waters. Instead of drowning, it floated down the stream and came to the home of a married couple with no children of their own. They were blind to the child's devilish features and took it for to raise as their son. The people of the town learned of the unholy adoption and went to take away the child from the deceived couple. When the townspeople reached the cottage, the three were gone without a trace, as if they had turned to smoke and blown away. Even though they were gone, the house was set ablaze and the stream set off limits.  
  
"Anyway, the point is the stream is "cursed" and no one will go near it because they think it will turn them into demons."  
  
Duncan led the way through the maze of campus roadway to the student parking lot.  
  
'Creepy story. Some towns have their legends, fine, but they don't so far as to include demons and a freakin' unholy river. We certainly don't have anything like that around here. Things are exciting enough with the Muties.'  
  
The one thing they did to make life more peaceful -for Duncan, anyway- was to take the route they were driving on. Kids, and quite a few adults, acted like taking the same asphalt as the Institute kids would infect them. If that were true, after his contact with Jean, he was already 100% mutant. He saw no reason avoid something as convenient as an empty road straight from his house to school. Even when distraction popped in out of nowhere (Anita), it was so much quicker.  
  
What was confusing was that lots of students took the same route as that Brotherhood. The stretch of road was close to being declared a national disaster zone, due to frequent earthquakes. If Duncan had to take one of the two mutant routes, Xavier's bunch it was. It seemed the obvious choice with Tolenski catching breakfast "on the fly," the witch having PMS 364.9 days a year, Albino boy yelling "Are we there YET!" every two seconds, Fatso threatening to bench press every car that passed theirs, and (Duncan's favorite) Lance being a road rage driver...hence the earthquakes.  
  
Duncan pulled into the "first-class" section, a shady area between two overhanging tree branches where leaves didn't like to fall. Anita took her motorcycle to the shade giving tree itself. She locked it around the trunk with a chain from her saddlebag. Turning around, she walked over to Duncan and outstretched her gloved hand.  
  
"It's nice to meet you Duncan. I would have done this sooner, but you would have killed me if I tried it at forty miles an hour." Duncan took the handshake. He blinked and looked at the hand dumbly. It had to be gloved, but it felt like skin...almost. There was a smooth feeling to it like metal, but it was warm and fleshy. She withdrew from the shake and placed both hands on her helmet.  
  
"I just wanted to say thank you, Duncan..." Anita lifted off the helmet and removed her jacket.  
  
.  
  
'Metal. Metal. METAL...'  
  
The word shot around his head like a rubber ball at 100 mph. Metal...that summed it up. Metal skin, metal hair, metal eyes, metal... Her gloves weren't gloves at all, but skin. Anita was bluish silver. She looked like a statue, but she...gave. The metal moved like flesh; there was a tracery of veins beneath the outer shell. Duncan felt like he could crush her without trying, like aluminum foil. God, she looked fragile. Anita was alive through all of that tin scrap though. Her face modeled sadness that was heartrending, and then gave a smile.  
  
"Thank you, Duncan. Thank you for making me feel like a normal human being for twenty minutes. I'd forgotten what it felt like entirely."  
  
Anita walked towards the building. "See you at school."  
  
REVIEW!!!  
  
(AN: No, it is not told entirely from Duncan's view, thank you. I want to tell it in that "get in their head" 3rd person, but only for Evolution Characters. I thought Duncan was a good character to introduce Anita, whom will have no say in the story. I am entirely open to suggestions for viewpoint characters, but I will bash nobody while I am "them." If you want to get someone bashed, I might do it as a rant in someone else's head. Just give me lots of ammo.) 


	2. DayDreamer

Okay, thanks for reviewing. I still would appreciate suggestions for POVs. Enough me talk. Now its Pietro's turn.  
  
***  
  
Pietro  
  
***  
  
"Are we there YET?" The ground rumbled and Wanda sent her death glare from the back seat. .  
  
"Get out and walk, Pietro. You'll be there in two seconds."  
  
".398 seconds, but that's beside the point."  
  
'The point is my bag weighs fifty pounds. I am not running 3 miles from here to school with a boulder on my back. Yeah, I can get there in less than a second, but I'll be sent to the morgue because my heart burst.' The mini-quake started again.  
  
'And let's not forget the Alvers Factor. This road should be renamed San Andreas Fault Street. I'm agile, but nobody can keep balance when Lance is ticked off. Tripping at 100 miles an hour is like getting thrown from a car at two hundred...without the windshield to slow you down.  
  
Pietro winced at the potential bloodbath, quickly so no one could see. "The point is I am too cool to show up on foot."  
  
"And the fact that you're sitting in the passenger seat?"  
  
"Negligible. You're hardly one to talk though, Miss Kiddy Section."  
  
"Dude, why can't Wanda sit up front?" asked Blob. "I'm sick of Todd sending his tongue past me to lick her neck." Pietro glanced in the rearview mirror. Sure enough, Toad's tongue was extended behind Fred's back and was trying to score on the Scarlet Witch. And not the just the neck, either. Normally he would be dead, but Fred was an unwilling barrier between the frog and his soon to be murderer.  
  
Pietro shook his head and groaned, "Tolensky."  
  
The boy swallowed his tongue. "Yo...Aagghhh!"  
  
"Thank you, Pietro."  
  
"Wanda, what are big brothers for, except to squash toads trying to long- distance French kiss their sisters?"  
  
Dukes looked down at Quicksilver in awe. "I didn't know you could hit someone that hard with a reclining seat."  
  
"Force equals mass times acceleration, Fred. I'm no heavyweight, but I can do serious damage if I move fast enough."  
  
"Yo, Speedy, can you, you know, let me out of here?" squeaked Todd from under Pietro's fully tilted back chair.  
  
"Maybe next week, if you're quiet. Can't you see I'm talking here? Where was I anyway?"  
  
"I don't know," Lance growled. He changed a few lanes and was finally able to speed up to fifteen mph. The road stopped shaking, for the moment. "It was something about why you sit up front."  
  
"Thanks, Man. Back to before the Toad Tongue interrupted: Sis, who do you think pays for the gas that this hunk of scrap knocks back faster than I can say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious?"  
  
"What the Hell was that last word, Mr. Mile a Millisecond Motor Mouth?"  
  
"My point exactly. I fork out the cash; I get the perks of sitting up front without the headaches of maneuvering through traffic. I could drive, but I prefer to be chauffeured."  
  
Pietro sat up and looked around. 'Didn't we pass this point already?'  
  
.  
  
"Alvers, quit driving around in circles and get us to school already!"  
  
The ground on either side of the road rippled as Lance put a death grip on the steering wheel. "Pietro, you said that two seconds ago!"  
  
Quicksilver missed the rest of Lance's rant.  
  
'Damn. I did it again.' He leaned back, and sure enough, his seat was there in its normal upright position. 'I never slammed this baby into Todd or talked about paying for gas for Lance's heap of junk. I didn't even think about why I don't run to school. Wait...I did...or did I just think about thinking about it? This is too confusing.'  
  
It was happening all the time now. The world around Maximoff would get too slow and his mind ran on ahead. Then world caught up and he got yelled at.  
  
'I don't even know if I'm going in real-time or daydreaming again right now. Dreaming...no, I shouldn't....' Pietro thought about it for a millisecond. 'Oh, what the Hell.'  
  
In a swift motion, too quick for the others to see, he swallowed a Nyquil gel tablet. It hit his stomach and oblivion started to come immediately. Any drug Pietro used worked fast and hard. It was so bad, he sent out a little prayer every time he drank at parties that no one had "spiced up" the coke.  
  
As sleep took him, Fred muttered, "He's asleep again. How does he do that?"  
  
Wanda's voice was distant. "I don't know, maybe mental training. Just be glad he's finally shut up."  
  
The rumbling stopped and Lance sighed. "Here's to that. If he said I was driving in circles or "Are we there yet" one more time, this whole town would be nothing but rubble."  
  
...  
  
"Pietro, we're here." Fred gently bludgeoned him out of sleep. The giant loomed above him with a concerned expression on his round face. "Man, I'm worried about you. Every time something doesn't happen every second, you fall asleep. You must be getting sixteen hours of sleep a day, twenty plus on the weekends."  
  
Quicksilver wanted to reply, 'I only fall asleep because the world is too damn slow and dead boring,' but Blob was really bothered by his sleeping patterns.  
  
"Don't worry about it, Fred. It's just a high metabolism. I burn energy too fast and have to sleep it off. No biggie, it just comes with being a mutant." He patted Dukes' shoulder and zoomed away.  
  
'You're a Goddamn liar, Pietro, and a soft one at that. You should have busted Fred's overlarge chops back there, but you actually tried to relieve his fears. Why should you give a damn? He's expendable...what am I saying?  
  
'He's important. Father, you're wrong about Fred, the Brotherhood. I can't just sacrifice them. They're the only friends I got.'  
  
...  
  
Pietro stopped dead to look at the court in front of the school's main doors. He leaned against a tree's trunk and stared.  
  
'What is this, a whisper convention?'  
  
The entire student body huddled in groups, glancing toward him every now and then. It was almost laughable how they tried to look at him and then turn away too quickly for him to notice. He kept an eye on every student in the yard, easily. No one could pull a fast one on him. Funny as it was, however, Maximoff couldn't help but wonder what was going on.  
  
"Okay...Pietro, Mutant about Town, hardly news to these kiddies. What are they staring at me for?"  
  
"They aren't." A voice above him said. "They are all staring at me, and doing a poor job of hiding it."  
  
Pietro turned around a looked up. A girl lay sprawled over a tree branch. The sun came through the leaves and reflected off her silver-blue skin in swaying patterns. She seemed to be a creation of some master sculptor, not of random genetic luck.  
  
"You don't seem shocked." There was a bit of confusion her voice. Apparently she wasn't used to people not gawking. Pietro regarded her calmly. "I'm more intrigued than surprised. Kids with physical mutations they can't hide were bound to show up in the school system eventually. Why not Bayville? It already has a Homo superior population anyway."  
  
She laughed darkly, cutting him off. "Homo superior, what an egotistical way of putting what I am. No less arrogant than "Freak," I guess, but from the other side of the equation...You look like you agree with me."  
  
"Homo superior, it's just a saying I had ingrained into me. The truth is I envy them, the normal people. Everything's made for them, just their speed. They never have to think about staying with the rest of the world, they just are. It's so hard for me to be there, in their world. They don't even try to help me, just the opposite."  
  
She sighed and sat up. "For me the problem isn't being in their world, I always am. I'm in their sights and I stand out. I stand apart. The problem is they push me away when I just want to be with them. But that's not going to happen. At least not this school year."  
  
"Enough moping?" Pietro flashed a bright grin and her own forlorn smile morphed towards happiness. Her teeth appeared to be made of platinum. Pietro silently hoped no one would try to knock them out for spending money.  
  
"Enough moping."  
  
"There's a girl. I'm Quicksilver, Pietro. So...what's your name, Silver, Metallica, maybe Ironheart?"  
  
The girl's smile plummeted into a glare. She dropped off the tree, scooped up her bag, and walked away. Ten feet from Pietro, she stopped and turned around.  
  
"My name," she growled pointedly, "is Anita, just Anita."  
  
***  
  
Another chapter finished...whew! These things really take a lot out of me, but I can't stop writing. Thank you for reviewing, those of you who did, but I really need some advice here! Voices cannot write on "I like it" alone. Give me some meat here: advice for improvement, suggestions for future chapters, spelling mistakes, anything!  
  
Yeah, I know I'm off on a rant with the review thing. Anyway, "Thank You for Reading." 


	3. Indiscriminate

Okay, I know people are reading this thing (the site tells me), but I have no idea what you guys think about it. I'm indecisive here. Help me and REVIEW!  
  
***  
  
Principal Kelly  
  
***  
  
Principal Kelly shuffled through his papers, separating the mutant related ones from the others. The mutant pile was of a height five times that of the general one. He sighed and sorted through the larger pile. Complaints about mutants in the school went on the left; most of them went on the left.  
  
'Here's something interesting.' A petition from parents and civil rights activists asked him to have a school assembly on the mutant issue...get it in the kids' heads that mutants were human beings with feelings just like them.'  
  
Kelly sighed again. 'Nice thought, but between the Brotherhood and the other half of the parent population, Bayville's teenagers will only see the bad and freakish. Still..." He put the idea at the back of his head. There would come a time in the future when mutants weren't as controversial and more common. When that happened, the government would be calling for his head if he let mutant haters out into the world.  
  
A knock came at the door. "Principal Kelly? I'm Anita Fahls, the transfer student." He shoved the papers to the side and invited the new student in.  
  
She walked in and the Principal's mouth tightened. As Anita took her seat, he mentally winced. Just what he needed: another mutant. She looked at him looking at her.  
  
"Well Miss Fahls, this would be a good time to lay some groundwork. Did you look at the code of conduct you were sent in the mail?"  
  
"Yes. The dress code was confusing. It doesn't matter what I wear as long as it doesn't contain offensive material, is that what it amounts too?"  
  
"Basically. Bayville High is relaxed in that regard. However, we ask that students do show some self-respect and avoid certain "extremes." Do you have any questions on the school in general?"  
  
Kelly found it easier to deal with the mutant when reciting and explaining the rules. It felt strange, the two of them interacting like normal people, but at least they were managing.  
  
"Does the school have metal detectors or magnetic locks?"  
  
"No."  
  
"If my gym class has a swimming unit, will I be forced to attend?"  
  
"As long as you have a signed parent's permission slip, I see no problem. However, you will be asked to make up the classes you miss."  
  
"That's good. My body is too dense to float; I would drown."  
  
'And there goes the normal conversation between two humans.'  
  
"Will I be measured against a different academic, physical, or ethical standard than other students?"  
  
"I should hope not."  
  
"If I tell you I've been abused by another student or teacher, will you believe me?"  
  
"What sort of question is that?"  
  
"The kind I want an answer to. I don't like the idea of being target practice or a scapegoat, Principal Kelly. I'm a mutant, I'm obvious, and I'm basically helpless. Will you believe me or the non-mutant?"  
  
"I can hardly make that judgment without knowing the situation. When it comes up, we will deal with it. Is there anything else?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Then please go to class..." Miss Fahls stood and walked towards the door.  
  
"...and make an attempt to stay out of trouble."  
  
She stopped and turned around.  
  
"Actually, I do have one more question. Is it illegal to discriminate against students because of their skin, of the physical traits predetermined by their DNA? I thought so, but lately I don't know anymore."  
  
Her voice rose and her face turned into a mask of rage. Kelly's eyes were fixed to her. He didn't notice the paperclips on his desk start to squirm.  
  
"This is an indiscriminate school setting, Miss Fahls," he managed to say calmly.  
  
"If I had normal, "flesh" toned skin, you wouldn't think twice about my ability to stay out of trouble. I have a 4.0, a spotless record; I'm only coming to a different school midyear because my family moved. You have no right to label me as a troublemaker. I can take some two thousand kids thinking I'm no good, but not my educators and mentors."  
  
A tear rolled down the girl's cheek. Outside, the flag pole warped slightly and the lockers closest to the metal mutant twirled their combinations.  
  
"Last year the government asked me to represent my country in a one month scholastic honors program for teenagers around the world. Now...now I can't even get a job at McDonalds in the area no one sees. God, the mentally challenged can work the crowd there, but can I work out of sight? No."  
  
Miss Fahls laughed and grew quiet.  
  
"Indiscriminate...right, whatever lets you sleep at night." The door shut and the school's metal calmed down.  
  
.  
  
Amazingly, only one person had noticed the steel's antics. He sat stock still, frightened out of his wits. The last time he saw metal move like that, his father had nearly snapped him in two. He still had the scars riddled over his back to prove it.  
  
.  
  
Kelly worried the edges of the petition. Finally, he picked up the phone and dialed the number listed at the bottom of the last page.  
  
"Hello, Mr Celenz? This is Principal Kelly of Bayville High School. I agree with you and your associates that something should be done about the mutant sentiment here. I'm afraid even the faculty is heavily biased against mutants."  
  
"No, I don't need a guest speaker. I'm afraid a simple school assembly can't make a dent in this situation. Do you have any more...radical ideas?"  
  
***  
  
It's a shorter fic, but I wanted to do Kelly and how long can you write for a school principal? I still kind of liked the way it turned out. Well, bye...oh wait, I forgot: REVIEW! (Or I may be forced to stop posting new chapters. The plot hasn't even started, please don't make me do it.) 


	4. Nein!

Updating! I would have posted this early Friday afternoon (10/31), but I pulled a Pietro. I was asleep for 16 hours (11:30 pm to 3:45 pm) but no Nyquil or drugs of any kind were involved. And I won't scream to review anymore, just ask.  
  
Kaylessa: Anita Fahls is an OC character of mine. There may be another metal girl around, but Anita belongs to me. ***  
  
Kurt  
  
***  
  
She was so beautiful. Tall, strong, blue...yes...blue was good. 'And she has no fear of being seen for what she is. If only I had that courage.' Kurt glanced at his image inducer, his savior, his cop-out. What was the point of using it anymore when everyone knew about mutants? Kurt wasn't a demon, just a freak.  
  
'But...it's different now.' The world thought he was normal and his friends weird. It was the exact opposite from the mansion, where he was the scapegoat: the freak among freaks. That feeling of normalcy was all Kurt really wanted, and he guarded it with his life. But there she was, all alone. How cruel was it to make her bear the weight alone?  
  
"Hey Kurt! Are you going to eat that? It's going, like, lukewarm."  
  
The elf pushed the pizza towards Kitty, who had forgotten her lunch money in her room. The group of kids around him stared. The last time Kurt was asked to give up pizza, all parties involved swore it was World War Three and then some.  
  
"Are you okay, Kurt?" Jean asked. "Ja, I'm just not hungry."  
  
"Give me your cross, Kitty. Quick!" The sophomore tossed it to Evan, who promptly laid it on the Nightcrawler's skin.  
  
"No prob, Guys, false alarm. Kurt's just insane."  
  
Kurt snatched up the crucifix. It felt heavy in his hand. "That's real funny, Spyke. Can't a guy just have a small appetite just once?"  
  
"NO." The collective voice hit him like a battering ram. At least they cared underneath that barrage, unlike...who? All that popped into his head was Beauty and the Beast, the villages knocking down the door to find it empty...and a castle.  
  
'Why does that pop up in my head? Maybe, I dreamed it? Velleicht...aber ich glaube nicht.[1] Mutti dropped me by a castle, but there was no battering ram. Ah well.'  
  
"So, like, who is she? The Brotherhood hasn't recruited forever, and it was a member's sister last time."  
  
"That's not necessarily the case, Kitty," Jean interjected. "This Anita could be an acolyte."  
  
Rogue shook her head. "What's the difference? I mean, they both work with Magneto. We're goin' to hafta fight her anyway, so who cares?"  
  
Scott looked at her and explained, "The difference is that if she's in the Brotherhood, she won't be much of a fighter and there's a possibility she'll switch to our side. An Acolyte and we have a problem. Four of them, not including Magneto, is enough to bring us to the ground. I don't want a quintet. I don't think she could be one of the Magneto's chosen few though. They're all older, out of high school. Anita is a sophomore, sixteen but still a sophomore. I know because she drove to school and takes sophomore Health. You should have heard the other students coming out of that class."  
  
Kurt winced at the conversation. Of course she was with the Master of Metal. She obviously wasn't at the mansion.  
  
"Whatever she is, the girl ist sehr brave. I wish I had half her courage."  
  
Rogue laid her gloved hand awkwardly on his shoulder. "Don't worry about it Kurt. This girl, she's only been like that fer a year or two. You had ta deal with it yer whole life. You had ta hide fer years, and it takes time ta come out." She smiled and gave a comforting squeeze. "One mornin' you'll wake up, look at th' inducer, and leave it on the nightstand."  
  
"Danke Rogue, but I don't feel as you do."  
  
Kurt got up and walked away. Anita, chewing a green apple at a table all alone, followed him. The X-Men didn't notice, their attention directed at a passing student complaining about a Freak infestation.  
  
.  
  
In a deserted corner of campus, Kurt rounded on Miss Fahls. "You are following me. Warum?"  
  
"Wer bist du?"  
  
"Was sagst du?"  
  
"Du bist der Nightcrawler im Fernsehen, nichts?"  
  
'Nein, wie kennt sie das? Niemand kennen ich bin der Nightcrawler, das Monster.'  
  
"Wie blendest du aus?'  
  
"Was?"  
  
"Ich möchte zu auch ausblenden. Ich will ein normaler Leben. Ihre Blicke, ihre Angst...ich hasse es. Ich hasse sie! Aber sie nicht vorwerfen sind, Niemand ist."  
  
"Xavier kann dich helfen. Er gibst du ein Hologrammgerät können, zu verheimlichst du."  
  
"Meinst du? Ich habe es war deine Mutation gedacht. Ist es mühevoll?  
  
"Nein, es ist nur eine Armbanduhr. Ich werde du eins angedeihen."  
  
"Wirklich? Danke sehr."[2] (AN: Ja...ich bin einer Deutsche Schulerin...I'm a German student. I'll translate the entire conversation down below.)  
  
Kurt stopped to look at Anita. 'We were speaking in Deutsch, in perfect, unaccented German. I was beginning to forget it, to think only in Englisch all the time.'  
  
"Where are you from...Anita is it?"  
  
"Yes, that's right. I'm from Germany, of course."  
  
"Ja, ich kenne das, aber wo in Deutschland?"3  
  
"A small village in the country. You would never have heard of it."  
  
"Try me."  
  
"Der Riesefuss, Giant's Foot."  
  
"Nein..." Kurts face went pale as images bombarded him. He heard the crash of a battering ram, Mutti's scream; he smelled sulfur. He saw a stream, the water rushing around him as he cried in terror. He smelled blood.  
  
"Nein!" He ported away. Anywhere, he didn't care. Just not by her, the child of Silke's killers.  
  
.  
  
.  
  
.  
  
.  
  
.  
  
.  
  
***  
  
1: Perhaps...but I think not.  
  
.  
  
2: "Who are you?"  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
"You are the Nightcrawler on TV, no?"  
  
'No, how does she know that? No one knows I am the Nightcrawler, the monster.'  
  
"How do you blend in?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"I would like to blend in as well. I want a normal life. Their looks, their fear, I hate it. I hate them! But they are not to blame, no one is."  
  
"Xavier can help you. He can give you a hologram machine, to conceal you."  
  
"Do you mean it? I had thought it was your mutation. Is it painful?"  
  
"No, it is only a watch. I will give you one."  
  
"Really? Thank you."  
  
.  
  
3: Yes, I know that, but where in Germany?  
  
.  
  
That was sort of fun. I'm a freak when it comes to foreign languages. If you find it annoying, I'll do the translation blips instead: *Yes, I am speaking in German now. It has just been translated to English text.* Ah well, "Please! x 1000" reviewer, are you happy now?  
  
One more thing...this is a fic about Anita Fahls. Not all of the sub- stories I stick in here are going to be continued. If you really like one (ex: Pietro's Sleeping Disorder), tell me and I'll consider writing a separate fic on it.  
  
BYE, and Thank You for Reading! 


	5. Victor's Praise

Is it just me, or am I leaving you guys hanging at the end of every chapter? What sort of cruel psychopath am I to do such a thing? But you guys keep coming back to me...wow. People are reading my fiction, this is so cool! Ok, breathe...not breathing, not breathing, not breaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa a  
  
***  
  
Kitty (Oh my God, it's a girl!)  
  
***  
  
"Like, can you think of anything more totally boring than gym? Run laps, do pushups, hear the other students complain that you're using your powers to win...I mean, how can it get any worse?"  
  
Rogue jerked her thumb towards the track field. "At least yer not on display, bein' gawked at." Way ahead of the rest of the runners, Anita sped along the track.  
  
"Maybe you've been payin' more attention to her skin, Kitty, but I've had a good look at her face. She hates this; the girl is tryin' ta run away. She's all alone out there. Not one of us has spent time with her, and tha Brotherhood hasn't neither. I don' think she's one of 'em, Magneto's kids. She's just a girl who wants ta cry."  
  
"I don't see any stretching going on, Miss Rogue!"  
  
"Damn, I gotta go. Talk to you afta school, Kitty."  
  
The Rogue stood up and jogged towards her sections to stretch out her legs. Kitty resumed her sit-ups, thoughtful. It had never occurred to her that a mutant in Bayville could not be connected to either Xavier or Magneto. Even Mr. McCoy, who had taught at the school for a time without joining either side, had been helped as a teenager by the Professor.  
  
On the fortieth sit-up, her last, she resumed a normal sitting position and watched the metal teenager only get faster, having just lapped the rest of her group. Kitty already could hear the grumblings about mutant powers, but doubted that Anita really had super speed going for her. The girl had a very long stride and actually ran while the others barely jogged. As a past escapee of the vicinity of several explosions, the Shadowcat knew what it meant to really run. She could have kept pace with the new kid easily and only be slightly winded after, any of the Institute kids could have.  
  
'Well...except for Kurt who just ports when he has to get away from something, the little bum.'  
  
Surprised at her unkind thoughts, Kitty shook her head and got up to go where the rest of her section was gathering. Like Anita, she had done the track faster -but not quite so obviously, only enough to compete with the three quickest girls. Her motive for the extra speed was pure greed.  
  
'Finish quicker and you can laze around, watching the snails overextend themselves to catch up.'  
  
Another shaking of the head. When all of the groups finished warming up, they came together to find the activity of the day, relay races. Kitty couldn't help but laugh when the team captains fought over who got Anita. Bayville normally ignored mutants at best and treated them like a pox at the worst. The exception was when athletic competition was involved.  
  
At first, when the students had just learned about mutants, their reaction was to never to pick them. The institute kids had been dumped into a 100% mutant group. It might have been a problem with the Brotherhood, but they never showed up for gym in uniform and had to sit on the bleachers instead of participating. Although a little stung, Kitty had enjoyed it. Her team won every time, no matter the activity or circumstances.  
  
The losing teams couldn't even complain, because they had put them together and the gym teachers always gave speeches about students giving it their all no matter what. The mutants could hardly be told to hold themselves back after such speeches, so an unwritten rule came about that the mutants had to be evenly placed on all teams.  
  
The only reason it wasn't an official rule, like the even division between girls and boys on coed gym classes, was because the teachers supposedly weren't allowed to treat mutants differently from the other kids. 'Yeah, like that never happens. I've, like, barely been able to hold onto an A average since it came out I was a mutant, and it's a fierce never-ending battle to be graded fairly.'  
  
Anyway, instead of being enforced by the gym teachers, the students themselves made sure the teams were fair. They had gotten tired of running laps while the mutants enjoyed their victory rest on the lawn.  
  
.  
  
As it turned out, the three mutant girls attending class -Kitty, Rogue, and Anita- were the last runners on their respective teams. The Southern Bell and her perky friend shared a look as the second last group came towards them, inches apart. They weren't going to go slower on purpose as they normally did. Anita wasn't going to be set apart again.  
  
Their hands were tagged and they were off. Ten seconds down the track, Anita sent a startled glance Kitty's way. She sent a warm smile back and the metal girl grinned and sped up. The X-Men matched the girl's pace every time she gained speed. Kitty felt winded for the first time in a long six weeks of gym and smiled determinedly. At the finish line, Rogue sent her another look and she nodded imperceptibly. It wouldn't do for the others to realize what they were going to do. Anita increased her pace on final time and the two did as well, but not enough. Fahls crossed the finish line a good two feet in front of Rogue, two yards ahead of Kitty.  
  
Pryde did her best to hide her smile as the girl's teammates cheered her and tried to appear totally winded from the run. It was too bad the praise wouldn't last into the girls' locker-room. At least Anita was smiling between enormous gulps of air. From the way she had looked at lunch, it was the first time she had not looked sad the entire day.  
  
The Shadowcat appeared to catch her breath and began her two Defeat Laps, keeping an eye on Fahls. The girl had moved away from her sprawled teammates and was walking off her run. She never saw it coming.  
  
***  
  
The ambulance performed CPR, so I'm alive, though I don't think I'm going to survive my readers' assassination attempts. Kind of stupid, since they want to know how my cliff hangers resolve. Anyway, aren't I cruel? In this case...not really. I just need to switch POVs. I'll be nice and post what "it" is sometime 11/1. I've posted one chapter from scratch for every day this fic has been online, so be grateful. 


	6. The It

Updating, updating! Put down the knife! } Isn't that so old? Oh, who cares? It's incredibly fun to write. Sorry to leave you hanging, but...okay I'm NOT sorry, but I'm hardly going to let you know that...oops. Just start reading before I say something else stupid.  
  
"My Phone Number": ! (!#@) *%( - )@#% ...Gotcha  
  
(Please don't unshift the numbers and plague some poor unlucky fool with calls. I just slammed them out at random)  
  
***  
  
Duncan (He's baa-ack!)  
  
***  
  
"She's such a priss."  
  
Duncan looked up the batting line. "Who?"  
  
"The Freak."  
  
'Ah, who else? The girl knows how to draw attention, I'll give her that. Ten minutes after she walked away and I've heard about nothing else since.' Anita knelt "on her marks" or in racer's pose. Two other mutants did the same on either side of her, but no one really noticed them.  
  
All eyes had been on the newest "freak" that day. Athletic, smart, and beautiful, she would have been noticed anyway. Hell, a full fledged boyfriend war would have begun. Duncan would have had "dibs" too, but the metal...  
  
'Yes, the metal, Duncan. Get it through your head. It's been, what, six hours and you still have processed...whoa.'  
  
The girls had been tagged and ran. And did they RUN. The onlookers did double takes.  
  
"Girls can run that fast?" a boy in the outfield asked.  
  
Some quickly put it off as powers, but Duncan wasn't sure. Pryde and the Rogue had been notoriously slow runners when they first came to school. It had been a not-so-private joke, especially when the time came to pick teams. As the year went by, however, they had slowly picked up speed and edged towards the top of their class.  
  
He mentally superimposed himself running flat-out the same track as the three teenagers. They left "him" in the dust in less than five seconds.  
  
'They "edged" towards the top, yeah right. They must have blown past the rest sometime last year if not sooner. Oh God, they're picking up speed.'  
  
Duncan was convinced a record was being broken, but he wasn't sure if it was a school or professional time...or the sound barrier. As a whole, the rest of the girls' gym class had regained their voices and cheered their respective runners on. The noise they made was certainly enough to disguise a sonic boom. The entire boys' class watched silently. Duncan sought out the Institute kids among them.  
  
Wagner, the one non-mutant kid, clenched his jaw and looked on coldly.  
  
On the other hand, Summers was the picture of shock, complete with a mouth shaped like a little "O." His live-ins obviously didn't exert themselves around him either.  
  
It was strange to look at the two boys. Duncan had rarely seen Scott with an unclenched jaw and Kurt's face was normally an open book. It was almost as if they had switched bodies. Duncan kicked the thought out of his head. Knowing the weird things that happened up at that mansion, it was entirely possible that was the case.  
  
The girls reached the home stretch. Anita won. It had been no surprise since she the time she lapped the others in warm-up. Her competition was what had blown people's minds. The silver mutant's team still went wild.  
  
'Girls always overreact like that! What's the point?'  
  
Anita smiled for the first time since before school.  
  
'Good point.'  
  
Duncan was so busy studying her as she wandered from her group toward the baseball diamond that he missed when the boy picked up the baseball.  
  
He did see the ball crash into the girl's shoulder and send her to the ground. The whole field grew silent as she lay sprawled over the green. She slowly rose to her feet, and picked up the ball. Anita smiled heartlessly at the boy.  
  
"You dropped this."  
  
The boy cringed as the metal mutant wound up and threw. He shielded his face. The ball landed lightly -harmlessly- at his feet and snickers of laughter erupted around the grounds.  
  
Cheeks flaming, he grabbed the ball again. He pulled his arm back to pitch it into Fahls again. Duncan caught the arm.  
  
"You've had your fun, Luke. Stop before you really get hurt."  
  
He cuffed the ball from Luke's hand. A flash of silver caught his eye and he stared at it dumbly. On the ball there was blood, silver blood.  
  
When Anita stumbled, Duncan was already running for her. She collapsed and he caught her...barely. Her shoulder was a mess and he wiped away some of the metallic blood to see the damage.  
  
"What the..."  
  
Her shoulder had caved in; there was a circular dent in her body. The silver blood filled the crevice again. Some part of Duncan hoped it was her body healing itself, but it was just thick blood that poured out of her. It was like the girl was only a vessel for it and some monster was squeezing it out of her.  
  
The liquid metal on his hands brought him out of his shock. He yelled for the teachers, anyone with a cell phone.  
  
"Someone get an ambulance. She's goin' to bleed to death!" No one moved, except the mutants. Summers reached them first, got one look at the shoulder, and shouted.  
  
"Kurt! We need to get her to the Professor now!" He cut himself off and looked around.  
  
Why was he shouting for Kurt? What could the kid do? Not like it mattered, the teenager was nowhere to be found.  
  
"Kurt!"  
  
Pietro was suddenly with them. "Wagner bailed. Overheard somethin' at lunch. Anita's from the some village in Germany. Kurt freaked when he found out the town's name, and he's been sending these furious looks at her ever since. They obviously have history, D-Day type history."  
  
"What was the town, Quicksilver?"  
  
"Someplace called Riesefuss."  
  
"Shit."  
  
Pietro cocked his head. "What?"  
  
"That's the town where the Wagners pulled Kurt from the river."  
  
"And this matters, why?"  
  
"It's a long story and I don't have time to...Magneto was in the castle upstream."  
  
"Shit."  
  
Duncan had heard enough of the strange conversation. "I don't care about German villages. She's dying!" He placed her in the white haired mutant's arms. "Pedal to the metal and get her to wherever you have to go!"  
  
Maximoff looked down at the girl, and hefted her up. "How far to Xavier's?"  
  
"Twenty miles."  
  
He froze for a second, and then mumbled "I'll be there in 7.96 seconds. Tell Wanda where I am."  
  
"Why? You'll be back in less than a minute."  
  
Quicksilver was already gone.  
  
***  
  
I'm going to be forced to slow down the week of 11/3, but I intend to make the projected one or two chapters I post in the school week longer if I can. Anyway, thanks for reading...at all hours of the night. Thirty people read this fic from 11 pm to 1 am on Friday. I know it was Halloween, but I appreciate the insomniac attention anyway...Oh God, its November! I hate November. My family is allergic to turkey and my grandma's famous ginger-snaps so Thanksgiving sucks in the food department. That and it gets really cold. Love snow, hate the cold.  
  
It's always colder when there's no snow verses with snow...ARE YOU INSOMNIACS STILL HERE? GEH WEG. READ SOME REAL FICTION AND LEAVE ME TO MY RAMBLINGS!  
  
Eternity out, Thank You for Reading 


	7. One Terrible Second

Wouldn't it be cool to kill her off right now? No, death by baseball is hardly fitting. Ah well, I guess I have to through with it. By "it" I mean a story somewhere around twenty chapters long, and that's an optimistic projection (pessimistic is a minimum of forty). This is exhausting (I'm losing weight). Not that I don't love doing it for you guys and myself, but I've never concentrated on something so hard in my life. I wish I was Pietro and could pump this stuff out and revise it thirty times in 2.52 seconds...never mind. Being Pietro sucks. Read on to find out why.  
  
Oh, this is DEFINITELY a PG-13 chapter.  
  
***  
  
Pietro  
  
***  
  
"How far to Xavier's?"  
  
"Twenty miles."  
  
.  
  
Pietro dropped Anita.  
  
'Twenty...God, I thought it was 6, max of ten. I can't do this.'  
  
He looked down at his hands and saw their fragility. He could imagine the veins underneath his skin and the blood within. It rushed through them too fast, especially through the thumb. He pinched the soft part of it, and felt a pleasant vibration. Or he would have if he were normal and knew what the Hell real time was. The super speed pulse reminded Pietro of his other pulse, deep within. He saw his heart beating like a rabbit's on crack.[1]  
  
If Quicksilver tried to run Anita to that mansion...he saw his heart burst and saw him fall at 2700 miles an hour. Every one of his fragile, oh so very fragile bones shattered. His blood splattered for miles, a mist coating the fall leaves an even deeper crimson. And Anita...nothing but bits of scrap metal imbedded in the trees. And blood.  
  
Pietro shook his head and looked at his hands again. Her blood clung to them, as if it were part of him. Would it harden and give him metal hands? Quicksilver hoped to God it wouldn't. It was bad enough that his bones were fragile. He couldn't even bear to think about such a handicap being welded to his skin. His father...  
  
Pietro began to shake as he remembered the time with the nails. How much worse would it be if he couldn't run?  
  
'Please, please wash away. Please let Anita's blood...Anita!' Pietro lunged for the girl.  
  
He had let her fall an entire centimeter.  
  
He scooped away the blood in the crevice to look at her shoulder's wound. He figured that if he was stuck with metal on his hands, the damage was already done. If the metal was stuck there, he might as well try to save her life instead of leaving her to die on the field. He did not want to have her blood on his hands for the rest of his life if she died. He would go crazy and become a modern-day Lady Macbeth.  
  
When the blood was out of the wound, either in the air or on him -most of it was on him- Quicksilver looked at it. It wasn't a good thing to see right after lunch. It was a sickening sight, period.  
  
The bones had collapsed, not cracked at all, just crunched like an aluminum can. Almost microscopic wires swayed about: the ends of ripped muscle. Blood spurted from torn silver tubes Pietro supposed were her veins. He played his slow motion view of the injury in normal people speed. He nearly went into convulsions at the thought. No hospital could fix that. The girl's only hope was Xavier, who could mentally cut off the blood flow long enough to patch her up. That still might not be enough. She might have lost too much blood by the time he reached the professor.  
  
For Anita to pull through it would take a miracle. Or his father.  
  
Pietro blinked with shock. The thought hadn't occurred to him, but of course. His father could save Anita. Once she was in his reach, he could heal her in seconds. It would be no work for him to replace every drop of the strange metallic blood she had lost. The Master of Metal could do it in the time it took a normal person to blink.  
  
But there would be a price. Death was better than that price for someone like Anita.  
  
'I want a normal life. Their looks, their fear...I hate it. I want to hate them! But they are not to blame, no one is. Someone who said that would never dominate normal people, never kill. She would hate herself. She would hate me. I can't take her to Magneto, even though she may die with Xavier. If she were able, Fahls would tell me to risk it.'  
  
Pietro glanced once more at the silver blood. It would cover most of his arms by the time he reached the mansion. He let out a desperate prayer.  
  
'Please let it wash away. Let it wash away so father will never know what I've done. Please, so he won't kill me.'  
  
He looked in the direction he had to go. There were too many trees that way; he would have to follow the road. He had heard it was deserted and hoped that was the case. There could be no distractions. It would take every bit of mental training he had given himself to keep his heartbeat slow...figuratively speaking.  
  
'God, I'm going to be in no condition to get back home from the Institute if I survive. But I'll have to get home quickly for father to not notice my treachery.'  
  
He looked at Scott. Cyclops was a big responsible person. Someone he could trust to be quick. Quick as a normal person could be.  
  
.  
  
He cleared his throat and said softly, "I'll be there in 7.96 seconds. Tell Wanda where I am."  
  
He ran off, concentrating on each step, breath and heartbeat. In his mind he repeated over and over, 'Every billionth of a second counts.'  
  
Pietro's chest began to ache and he reached into his mind to a place that had taken him weeks to find, veritable centuries for the speedster. It was the involuntary part of his mind, a throb of rhythm that never ceased, so was never noticed. He followed the beat to its harmony, the part that controlled the heart. With a massive tug, he closed that part off in a massive labyrinth.  
  
No matter how his muscles screamed, the heart would go no faster than its current slightly elevated rate. The nerve messages would become lost in the great maze and never come out. Even if one managed to reach that part of his brain, it would never get out. The heart would never receive a message to speed up.  
  
He would let his muscles suffocate; let them die so he would not die instead.  
  
Pietro lost feeling in his feet and hands. His brain grew a little fuzzy, but he held the maze in place with all his diminishing will. As his arms grew numb, Maximoff somehow found the will to do another involuntary miracle. He reached for the arteries in his arms and dilated them. Blood rushed to the arm muscles and he renewed his grip on the dying girl.  
  
Weren't they a pair? A boy a dying girl hardly knew was attempting to save her life, killing himself in the process.  
  
.  
  
The gates of the Institute appeared several thousand yards into the distance. Quicksilver allowed the labyrinth to crumble to mental dust and concentrated on stopping safely. He was still going twenty mph when the gates were ten feet away. It would have to do.  
  
Pietro threw himself to the ground and coasted the rest of the way on his back. He hurt so much.  
  
'Hyperventilate, let the heart explode, just end the pain.' He crawled at a snail's pace one last time into his mind to turn off his pain receptors. He reached the switch, but someone snatched him away from his salvation at the last moment.  
  
The monster wrapped metal vines around Pietro and he screamed in terror. Every memory of his father surfaced and he struggled like a madman. The vines abruptly became true vines made of plant fiber. Pietro calmed down and allowed them to immobilize him. They dug into his skin and wrapped around his out-of-control heart, slowing it. They reached down his throat and gave him air. They dug into his spine, the cerebral cortex, and his brain to take away the responsibility of his life from them. The vines wrapped him in a womb.  
  
*Sleep, Pietro. Nothing may harm you here. You are safe. You saved her life, and now you must sleep.*  
  
*What are you?*  
  
The voice of the vines gave a deep and gentle chuckle. *A friend, Pietro. Rest child, I will not let Magnus harm you again.*  
  
*Magnus...but only person who calls father that is Prof...*  
  
The vines in his brain pulsed and pulled his mind into oblivion.  
  
***  
  
Creepy images, huh? Don't say I didn't warn you guys. In the summary, no less.  
  
***  
  
1: I took that from a review by ishandahalf for my fic "Thief of Spirits." I fell off my chair laughing and had to use it. 


	8. Staring Contest

If you haven't already guessed, I'm serious about becoming a writer. I'm considering posting a bit on fictionpress.net, but NOT right now. Okay, sounding a little bit too much like advertisement lady here.  
  
About the writing, this is therapy/exercise for me and I would like some ideas. Think of it as a contest/assignment. Send in an idea for a fic (it doesn't have to be X-Men, but I only am familiar with so much) and I'll try my hand at it. I've updated my bio to include stuff I know. I won't be doing anything until this is farther along, but I will finish this fic eventually (even if you beg me not to) and I will need a push in a new direction. I'll give you credit for the idea.  
  
Disclaimer: See the top of Ch1. On with the Story!  
  
***  
  
Scott  
  
*** "Tell Wanda where I am."  
  
Scott looked at Quicksilver and the truly silver mutant in his arms. Was he struggling with the weight? It didn't matter; he would only hold the girl for a few seconds, and then drop her off at the mansion.  
  
"Why? You'll be back in les than a minute."  
  
Quicksilver was already gone.  
  
Scott groaned. "Typical. I suppose he intends to stay there." He looked around once more for the blue fur ball, but Kurt was nowhere in sight. He would have to drive to the mansion and he did not have the patience to wait that long to know what was happening. Cyclops focused in towards his immediate surroundings. Rogue and Kitty stood nearby, waiting.  
  
Rogue crossed her arms and looked down at the ground. Scott followed her gaze and saw the grass glistening with the color he thought of as silver. The ruby lenses he was forced to wear distorted colors, and he went by years old memories of what the colors were really. He only saw reds clearly, like the color of roses, fire trucks, and blood.  
  
Scott blinked and refocused on the liquid coating the lawn. 'Normal blood, anyway.'  
  
Pryde clenched her hands over and over again. She often tensed her muscles and squeezed her hands, even dugs her nails in skin. Despite the frequent grooves in her arms from the nail punctures, Scott never moved to stop her. The professor knew better than he what to do about things like that, and Xavier had never had a talk with the girl. Scott understood her need to have something solid to hold onto that she wouldn't phase through, even if it were her own body. It was like his need to surround himself with red things that he could see without the lenses lying to him.  
  
Scott checked Kitty's grip. It was too tight and he didn't want red blood on the grass as well. "Kitty, I want you to find Jean as soon as class is over. Have her do a sweep for Kurt; the Professor is going to be occupied." She relaxed her hands. She had a purpose to grip and no longer needed a physical thing. Scott relaxed as well. The Professor let the nail marks go, but the school councilors were another matter. Scott looked out for the team. Someone had to, and he was the one that did it.  
  
"Rogue, tell the others to catch a ride with Jean or Kurt, when she finds him, then come straight to the car. We're leaving immediately." She nodded just as the gym teachers regained their composure and told the students to hit the showers. Scott was grateful it had been last period. His eyes flicked to the final person close to him: Duncan.  
  
Cyclops didn't know why Matthews had stopped the boy from throwing again, or why he cared about Fahls. Maybe it was bias, but Duncan didn't seem capable of acting less than cruel towards a mutant. He threw Jean away, treated her as infected.  
  
Yet there he was with the mutants. Scott glanced towards the bleachers where the Blob and Toad were leaving. He thought of the missing Nightcrawler and scowled. 'Some of the mutants, anyway. The ones that cared.'  
  
He finally turned to face the football player. "If you want to visit her, the gates will open for you." Scott walked off to find the Scarlet witch. Pietro had made it sound important.  
  
"Thanks."  
  
He turned and glared back. "I won't pretend to like you, Duncan. Even to tolerate you. There have been times when I've almost..." Scott tilted his sunglasses slightly and red light shimmered above them. "Well, I imagine you have some idea." He replaced the shades.  
  
"Still, you surprised me today. I'd be an idiot to ignore that people change. My friends are now my enemies at this school. And when Maximoff goes out of his way to help a stranger...anybody can change. I'm willing to give you a shade of a doubt, no more. If you hurt any of us, you and I will be having a staring contest."  
  
***  
  
Shorter chapter, but that's what happens when you POV switch like this. Some are longer than others because I'm centering this around 


	9. Childish Savior

No spiel this time, just get to the story and enjoy. Okay, I have a pet peeve right now. Do you know how sometimes the site sticks your writing in weird symbols or -the more terrible of the two in my opinion- when the site cuts off your summary mid-sentence?  
  
Isn't that a bunch o  
  
Know you know how I feel. Oh and anoth#$ t*(n!.  
  
Damn file glitches. (I don't really blame fanfiction.net but isn't that so aggravating?)  
  
***  
  
Xavier  
  
***  
  
The professor stared blankly at the two children. Death was knocking on their door with a battering ram and they grew weaker with every blow.  
  
Pietro's vital signs had stabilized somewhat, but his body had gone into severe shock. He devoured tanks of oxygen and his cells screamed for more. A small tremor occurred in the handicapped man's right foot. It was the only feeling below the waist he still experienced. It meant fear.  
  
In all his years, Xavier had never met anyone who could control his body like Pietro had. The professor could slow his heart, but through mental force on the organ itself. Even then, he was fighting the signals his involuntary brain sent. It should have been impossible for the boy to control his unconscious brain like it was a control room of switches and levers. Impossible, but he had done just that.  
  
Xavier briefly thought about what such power could mean, but Miss Fahls' blood dripped on the floor. The man dropped all thought -all involuntary thought- and concentrated on his mental blockage of her blood. It was a cruel fate that condemned the girl to such fragility that a baseball was a lethal weapon.  
  
*Please hurry, Hank.*  
  
A drop of sweat trickled down his head. Mentally blanketing Maximoff and keeping Anita's remaining blood in her body would soon take its toll on him In a matter of hours, he would be forced to focus his energy on one, letting the other die, or have them both slip through his fingers.  
  
"I am working as quickly as my knowledge on the subject allows. Metallurgy is hardly my forte." The blue doctor rushed through medical texts and the no few tomes on metal composition from the professor's library. Every few seconds he looked through a microscope at samples of the silver mutant's blood, muscles, nerves, and bone. Hank had an open fascination with the organic metal.  
  
'Organic...' The word repeated in the doctor's head several times, growing painfully loud. His clawed hand clenched.  
  
*Hank?*  
  
He shoved the books off his desk and collapsed his upper body onto it. He looked bleakly at the girl. "Just stop, Xavier. You are only giving a living death." Hank buried his head in a nest made by his crossed arms.  
  
"I went into my research thinking Anita's body was true metal that could be forged and created from other basic metals. She was living and her body was made of living cells that functioned like a normal human's. I can no more build her blood than I could my own."  
  
*Do not refer to Miss Fahls as if she had already died, Hank. Are there other options?*  
  
Mr. McCoy harrumphed, "Unless you can convince her body to produce at least a liter and a half of blood in a few hours, there will be no chance. Please, don't let her feel any pain."  
  
Xavier sighed. *Her mind is too convoluted to influence sleep. You know I can't end her pain. Pain is an involuntary...*  
  
Hank looked up. "Professor?"  
  
.  
  
Xavier barely acknowledged McCoy as he walked up to a tower made up of vines. An opening appeared and he strolled through it. Pietro put down the toy and looked at him.  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"I am a friend of the vines, Pietro."  
  
The boy looked confused. "How do you know my name?"  
  
"The vines told me. Why don't you have a shirt on?"  
  
"I took it off."  
  
*Wonderful, six year old logic.*  
  
"I heard that." The little boy looked up at Xavier. The man knelt to put his face level to Pietro's.  
  
"Did you now? You are very talented, Pietro. Do you remember Anita?"  
  
The first grader shook his head. "Who's she?"  
  
Xavier sighed. "Anita is another friend of the vines. She is in trouble and I need your help to save her? Will you help me?"  
  
Pietro looked around and sunk into a corner of the room. "Vines said not to leave. She said somethin' bad would happen."  
  
The professor went to the boy and ruffled his white hair. "We don't have to leave, Pietro. Just sit down on my lap and we'll bring Anita here."  
  
"Okay."  
  
.  
  
Xavier sat with Pietro and concentrated. Anita appeared lying before them. The boy gasped. "She's pretty...I want to touch her."  
  
The man couldn't help but laugh at the boy's innocent words. "Some things never change," he mused to himself as he thought of the teenaged Pietro.  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Shush. We do not have much time to help her," Xavier said quickly. "Pietro, I need you to put your hand on Anita's forehead. Do you remember the place in your mind with the rhythms? I need you to find that place in her and lead me to it."  
  
"Okay." He touched her head and closed his eyes. Xavier dropped into Pietro's mind and followed him into Anita's. The boy flew through a set of white stone passageways that the professor vaguely recognized as neural connections. Pietro saw the mind as a building with many doors and turns. They finally stopped and Xavier wondered why. Turning to the wall, Pietro pushed a stone slab and it swung open.  
  
Charles entered the new set of halls with a sense of awe. This was an entire part of the mind he had never seen. "Pietro, can you show me the place that controls the body's ability to make blood?" The child flew off again and he rushed to keep up. At first, Maximoff ran through the dark corridors, and then he opened a strange, circular door. They were in a room this time. It was made of the same black stone as the involuntary hallways, but there were arcane symbols glowing in the walls.  
  
"Do you understand these symbols, Pietro?"  
  
"Of course. Can't you?"  
  
He looked at the boy. "No, I can't. I need you to do something for me. Anita needs blood and she needs it fast. Please, can you make her bone marrow create about a liter and a half of blood in an hour or two? And then make it go back to normal?"  
  
"Is that all?" The man blinked. The boy acted like the impossible could be done by snapping his fingers. He paused a moment and thought, *What am I saying? He has every reason to believe that he can.*  
  
The boy cocked his head. "Why do you keep talking to yourself?"  
  
"I'm sorry Pietro, it's an old habit. Tell me if it won't be hard to do this. Can you speed up her cellular regeneration as well? Anita has a serious injury on her left shoulder. She will die if her veins, muscles, and so on are not knit up."  
  
"Okay, but leave first. You're slowing me down."  
  
"Pietro, I really must be here to see how..." The boy struck out his hand and tapped Xavier's forehead.  
  
He smiled as the professor fell into sleep. "Sorry."  
  
.  
  
"Professor!" Hank's shout awakened Xavier and he quickly renewed his mental work of keeping the two children alive before it fell to pieces.  
  
"What in the world were you doing?"  
  
The doctor opened his mouth to say more, and then he noticed Anita's shoulder begin to heal up as if she were Wolverine. The mouth remained open, but no sound came out. After a minute, Xavier let go of his mental tourniquets and no blood came out.  
  
Pietro's eyes fluttered and Xavier focused on the remarkable boy. A list appeared in the professor's head.  
  
"Hank, I need you to set up an IV for Anita with the following nutrients. In high concentrations and soon, please. Her body is using them up fast."  
  
***  
  
Well that was interesting. If why Pietro can do things like this is confusing, just think about what a very bored mutant with seeming millennia to kill every year of his life can learn.  
  
Thank You for Reading,  
  
Eternity out. 


	10. Lilly's Killers

You know, I get just a little ticked when I update and my fics don't show up on top right away.  Site traffic and human limitations, don't they bite?  They bite with inch long fangs, and speak of the devil...

***

Kurt  (Look, I finally tracked down the fur ball!)

***

Wagner sat in a tree not far from the mansion's gates.  He had ported there shortly after Anita had won the race.  The way her teammates had cheered her, he couldn't take it.  No other mutant had received that and some "had" been inseparable friends to the normal students. 

The school had begun to accept Anita after one day.  If Kurt ever appeared at school as himself, there would be blood.  Just like there had been at Riesefuss.

Kurt winced and covered his pointed ears to block out the sounds from his memory.  The crash of the battering ram haunted him.  It was one of his first memories, which made it all the more vivid and terrifying.

In his nightmares, he heard it.  Kurt dreamt of it often.  He didn't know how much was memory and how much was imagination, but he knew it was all true.

**His Mutti ran through the forest, clutching him to her chest.  There was a bridge and the board collapsed under her feet.  Mutti stumbled and he fell through her arms and into the water.  It roared around him and he cried out in terror.  He slipped under the water many times, but then instantly appeared above the surface after a second.  He sank once more.**

**When he magically surfaced again, it was on top of  a rock.  The water still roared and her still screamed.  Gentle hands picked him up and he stopped.  A face smiled at him and he smiled back.  The face looked like Mutti's, but the colors were wrong.**

**He wrapped his tail around her arm.  She laughed.  It was a happy, safe laugh.  He could tell.  They walked into a building.  A baby cooed in a crib.  The peach Mutti put him in with the little one.  "Guten Abend, Lilly.  Diesem kleines Mann is Kurt, dein Bruder.  Shush, das is die Zeit für küssen!" [1]  The peach Mutti kissed them both.  "Guten Abend.  Schläfst Lilly, schläfst Kurt." [2]**

**She turned to someone in the room.  "Heinrich, wir haben ein Sohn. Jetzt wir haben zwei Befremden fur die Stadtbewohner." [3]**

**Lilly and he fell asleep, his tail curled around the newborn's waist.**

**Kurt was happy with Mutti, Vater, und Lilly.  Three nights later, Vater came home scared.  Mutti and he ran around, throwing things in boxes.  Kurt sat on the floor, watching.  Lilly lay in her crib.  She was too young to sit up as well.  She gurgled and looked at hanging strings.  Lilly did that when she couldn't be tickled by his tail.**

**Shouts came from outside.  They said "Dämon" and "Satan."  Mutti ran and bolted the door.  Vater put the phone to his ear, and then slammed it onto the table.  He ran to the boxes and shoved them into a closet.  He put Kurt behind them and shut the closet door.**

**The battering ram crashed into the front door with a loud crunch.  Mutti felt a frightened child clinging to her leg.  She looked down to see Kurt and then stared at the sealed closet.  The front door blew off its hinges.  Vater rushed to Mutti and pulled her behind him.  Lilly and Kurt both screamed at the noise, and he, Mutti, and Vater disappeared in smoke.**

**Mutti and Vater stared at the trees around them and then at their Sohn.  Mutti threw up.  They wandered around dazedly, stumbling into things and shaking their heads violently.  In a few minutes, they went back to normal.  Mutti whispered, "Lilly," and looked around wildly.  She started running.  Vater scooped up Kurt and followed her.**

**After a while, Kurt began to cough from the smoke.  The clearing around home was deserted.  Home was on fire.  Vater handed Kurt to Mutti and ran inside.**

**He came out soon and walked towards them slowly.  He carried a bundle in Lilly's white blanket.  Mutti began to cry.  Kurt turned to see better.  The blanket was soaked with red.**

That was where Kurt always awakened screaming.  They had mistaken Lilly for him and killed her.  Mutti had barely shown until late during the pregnancy.  Only the midwife had known, but they had sworn her to secrecy.  It had been their little surprise for the world.

The townsfolk were surprised.  When they learned what they had done, they burned the house to hide the evidence.  They were cowards.

Mutti and Vater buried Lilly next to the stream where Kurt had been found.  They moved far away.  Kurt never would have known about Lilly, but his first words had been "Wo Lilie?"  He asked the question for years, though he hardly remembered who she was. Mutti finally broke down and told him everything.  Then the nightmares began.

Tears fell down Kurt's face.  "Riesefuss should pay.  Their children should bleed too!"

Pietro crashed into the gates.  Anita lay in his arms, bleeding.  Kurt nearly fell out of the tree.  "Was!"  The smashed gates opened and the adults rushed them inside.

The Nightcrawler ported into the kitchen and heard miss Monroe make a phone call.

"Mrs....forgive me, Herr Fahls.  I expected Frau Fahls to answer.  There has been a serious accident at Anita's school.

"She is not being taken to the hospital.

"Anita is not at school either.  My name is Oror Monroe.  I work at the Xavier Institute for...I see you've heard of it. Please do not shout at me, Herr Fahls.

"No, Anita could not have been taken to the hospital.  She would be dead now if Professor Xavier had not staunched the blood flow.  As it is, she's lost too much blood and it has been determined her body will not accept non-mutant blood.  If you could please come...how did this happen?  Herr Fahls, you would not believe me if I told you."

Ororo speed recited a list of direction and hung up sadly.  Kurt slunk away on hands and feet, not wanting to give away his location with a cloud of sulfur.  He crawled on the ceiling to a high window and went outside.  Crawling to the roof, he was plagued by terrible thoughts.

'I did not mean to...Anita didn't deserve this.  She did not kill Lilly!  When did this happen!  And Pietro, what is he doing here?  Why did he collapse like that?'  He gasped as he realized Lilly's killers would soon be at his home.  Fangs appeared.

Kurt would not kill them, not hurt them.  If they were true parents, Anita's fight with death would be pain enough.  But he would let them know that their sins were by no means forgotten.  He turned to the road to wait, but only after praying for a miracle for the dying girl.  Despite appearances, "he" was not a monster.

***

[1] Good night, Lilly.  This little man is Kurt, your brother.  Shush, this is the time for kissing!

[2]  Good night.  Sleep Lilly, sleep Kurt.

[3] Heinrich, we have a son!  Now we have two surprises for the townsfolk!

***

Well that was a different view on this series of events.  

Thank You for Reading.

Eternity Out...I love saying that.


	11. Good Luck

Eternity's Voice rubbed her hands together menacingly.  The keyboard attempted to slither away, but she began a relentless barrage of typing, pinning in it place.  "Don't think I like this anymore that you do," she growled and struck the keys more forcefully.  "You only get beaten by nice, soft fingertips.  My readers aren't quite so gentle with me.  It's always write, write, update, nice but go faster...yaggh!"  The mouse, not nearly as timid as its furry cousins, had bitten her.

***

Wanda

***

Wanda charged at the jeep.  She gestured towards Lance with an angry sweep of the hand.  The key chain he twirled around a finger shot out of his grasp and hurtled towards the witch.  It settled neatly on her outstretched index finger.  In moments, she was in the driver's seat, screeching out of the parking lot.  Belatedly, Wanda called back, "Go to the pizzeria on fifth!  I'll pay the bill when I get there."

As she left the parking lot, a strong wind appeared out of the blue and brought Todd's words to her ears.  "Wow, must be some 'mergency.  'M not even gonna touch the bill Fred's goin' to ring up."  The Scarlet Witch groaned slightly.  The wind turned into a gale and she cursed Lance and his car that exposed her to the elements.  It was bad enough that she would be broke for months and Pietro was probably going to die; she didn't need to be tortured by tornado winds.  

Suddenly, an object fell into the empty front seat.  A gap appeared in the traffic and she was driving on an empty stretch of road at illegal speeds.  Wanda glanced at the passenger side and saw a fat leather wallet lay neatly on the seat.  She chuckled sarcastically, "Now what were the chances of that?"  Her black mood turned a midnight blue; good luck always made her feel cheerful.  She quickly peeked at the amount inside and whistled.  Fred could eat his body weight with that.  "Hell, we all could eat that much and then buy new wardrobes for our fat selves and I would **still** come out ahead."  Wanda remembered what she was doing and increased her speed.  The speedometer read one of those insane numbers only legal on the Autobahn.  Even then, she wasn't sure a German cop wouldn't throw her in jail for speeding.  She didn't worry about it except to concentrate harder on the road.  The odds of blowing past a cop car were almost nothing even without her luck.

The Scarlet Witch ran two deserted red lights.  The third red had a busy intersecting street, but the traffic signal machine experienced a brief malfunction and her lane turn green at the last moment.  She had never slowed down.  Cars on either side squealed as their braking tire left dark lines on the pavement.  Miraculously, the drivers had been paying attention to the lights and all stopped in time to let the lone driver barrel past unscathed.  Behind Wanda, people sorted themselves out and drove off.  Their cars were undamaged, unless they counted their bald tires.  She zoomed on ahead, trusting her extraordinary luck to prevent any unfortunate accidents.  Like all things, she trusted it only as far as she could throw it, but her hexing range was just outside thirty miles so it hardly mattered.

Ten minutes after leaving school, she drove through the gates.  She would have like to have claimed responsibility for their open state, but her arrival had been expected.  About 230 pounds of muscles and metal bone snarled at her form the steps.  Wanda ignored the animal and stormed through the mansion's doors.  She chose a random path.  As luck would have it, she managed to find the secret elevator and then the medical lab without missing a step.

Two bodies lay on hospital beds.  The Scarlet Witch spared only a brief moment to feel pity metal girl.  Judging by the composed attitude of her blue attendant, she was going to be fine.  A machine's whine brought her attention.  It was a heart monitor.  The sound seemed frighteningly like a flat line, but was only the speed of his heartbeat.  Instead of solitary beeps, it came out as a solid sound.  

Wanda placed her hand on Pietro's chest.  A vibration went through her palm and up into her mouth.  The buzz entered her teeth and she heard a faint sound come from them.  "Vibrations at twenty hertz are audible to the human ear," the girl recited, remembering her Physics teacher's words from only a few hours ago.  

Wanda commanded the professor's attention.  "How fast is the heartbeat?"  

Xavier's eyes opened and he looked at his former, failed student.  "Several beats per second."

"Define several."

"Fifteen or sixte..."  His mouth finished the lie, but his voice had cut out when the Scarlet Witch snapped her fingers. 

"Wrong answer, try again."

He leaned back into the back of his chair.  'Lucky that.'  She laced her thoughts with acid.  'You can always lean back in that wheelchair to look wise and all-knowing.  You can't fool me with that shit anymore.  Nothing is perfect, especially not you.  If you lie and attempt to make me think that you can handle this yourself, more than your back will be permanently broken when he dies.  He doesn't need your help, he needs a miracle.  We both know that miracles are my specialty.'

Pietro's eyelids fluttered.  *Wanda?*

She glared at the professor.  What sort of fool did he take her for?

*Wanda, you pull that disbeliever crap, an' I'll burst my heart.  Hell, I could do Xavier's too and he knows it.  Don' let Anita get taken any farther from me and can the lights be dimmed, my eyes are killing me.*

Okay, it was Pietro.  The blue catlike man transferred Anita to a trolley and Wanda called out.  "Don't move her."  Her twin spoke in her mind and she repeated almost word for word, "I'm not...Pietro isn't done yet.  He needs to balance her hormones and strengthen the new bone.  Strengthen her entire body, actually.  He's doing some chancy work and if he stops in the middle, it could be bad. Xavier, he says to tell you that he knows it is sapping his strength, but he doesn't care.  She's too important."  

Wanda snapped out of her trance and berated her twin.  "I don't think so, brother.  You have ten seconds to log off the mental net.  She placed her hand over his head and counted down the numbers aloud.  She felt a scrabbling in her own head, but called on her luck to slip away from Pietro grasp.  At three seconds, his tensed face smoothed over and the sound coming from the heart monitor immediately dropped down a few octaves.  She smiled.  Thanks to Physics, she knew that his heartbeat had slowed dramatically.

"...Three, two, one."  Another monitor slowed, the one that measured brain activity.  "Goodnight Pietro and good luck to you."               


	12. Not Just a Copy

Um...I guess this chapter contains a short (Rogue/Pietro)...sort of.  

***

Rogue

***

Rogue sat and looked out to the side of the road.  She cried in the only  way she would allow herself to in the presence of anther.  Looking away, her eyes were blurred with hot guilty tears, but she did not blink.  Moving her eyes would spill the salty water onto her face.  Rogue didn't know why she cried; Anita's fate was disastrous but she couldn't bring herself to cry.  It was one of the others who wept for the girl.

Even at the speed Scott was driving, they would not reach the mansion for at least half and hour.  There was just too much traffic at the intersections in the early afternoon.  With nothing better to do, she searched for the person who made her cry.  

Closing her eyes, _Rogue saw an ancient elegant door.  A capital P in olden script was engraved into the polished wood.  She placed her hand on the letter's base, marveling at the wonderful texture.  She could feel every fiber, each cell, and all the tiny electrons whirling about their nucleuses.  There was a small cracking noise and the wood began to burn.  The tiny spark came from her fingertips.  It blazed forth and traced the carved P until the entire letter was burning.  The P turned cherry red, and then faded to leave only scorch marks._

_Rogue stared at the door.  It had never done that before.  She leaned forward to examine the delicate burn scars.  The P beginning to glow again was her only warning and it still was barely enough.  The girl threw herself back and away as the enormous door was consumed in inferno.  It burnt away  in seconds.  On her butt and covered in cinders, Rogue shook her head ferociously to knock a pound of ash out of her hair.  She climbed to her feet, grimacing at the mess she had become.  A practical joker was going to die shortly, as soon as she found out who did it.  She added that question to her list to give Pietro and wandered through what was left of the doorway.  The stone passageway lit by torches came out into -of all things- a shopping mall._

_Mall hardly described the enormous collection of plazas and multilevel halls crammed with stores.  Every inch contained something unique and extraordinary for the eye.  With a million years to look at it, she would never see everything there was.  _

_Thousands of shoppers swarmed about.  They were full of laughter and lightning quick remarks.  No two people were anything alike.  One boy who seemed to have walked out of a Renaissance Faire casually slung his arm about the shoulder of a woman with black and white checker boxes tattooed over her entire body.   The pair moved through the mall like hummingbirds: gone before she had time to really notice them._

_Rogue made her way to a certain bench where nothing moved.  It was the eye of the storm, where a pair of eyes watched the stormy world about him appreciatively._

**_*Hello Pietro._**_*  She sat down and looked out at the colorful blurs.  Fast as that world had seemed from within, it was too fast to follow from without.  It was just Quicksilver's speed._

_He turned to smile at her.  The copy was more laid back than the real Pietro, calmer.  His fidgets were gone and he held himself serenely.  "Rogue, what brings you to my world?"_

_*I have some time an' I need ta talk ta one of them.*  Pietro didn't ask who "them" was.  He knew what she meant._

_"Do you have any clues to which one?  You know it's better to go to the one than to pull them all out from their little worlds."  He leaned back into the bench and his eyes became little speed demons, tracking the entire crowd.  _

**_*Have you been keeping an eye on tha Real World?* _**_Rogue asked.  She wasn't willing to explain the situation out there.****_

_"I've devoted the odd second, yes.  Does this have to do with the new silver mutant?"_

**_*She's been mortally wounded.  Someone feels guilty and it's affectin' me.  That means someone is breakin' tha rules and projectin' emotion onta me or is feelin' so remorseful it's leakin' from them uncontrollably.  Somethin'..._**_*_

_"...tells you it's that second one, I know .  Don't bother to make that joke about putting on a plumber's belt to go fix the wet-works either.  I knew you were going to say that to."_

_He swiveled to face her and sat cross-legged on the copper bench.  His face held a bored expression and he sighed, "You're getting predictable Rogue.  I hate predictable.  See that man with the bald head except for a braid that reaches to the floor?  I never would have predicted that so I love it." _

_He reached for the girl and touched her cheek with his bare hand.  _

_"You're an interesting person, Rogue.  I don't want to hate you.  Quite the contrary."  He kissed her too quickly for her to react.  Pulling back, he watched her go pale and laughed.  "See?  Last time you blushed bright red.  I never know how you will react and I love that part about you."_

_She raised an eyebrow.  *Don't you love all of me?__*_

_He grew solemn.  It made a contrast to his impish words.  "Predictable as ever.  Let's play a game.  You guess who the culprit is and I'll tell you the unedited truth.  Three guesses."  _

_Maximoff snapped his fingers and the bustling mall and its strange inhabitants disappeared._

_They sat on a wood bench in the middle of a forest in spring.  A ways ahead, there was an old-fashioned crossroads.  A tall oak pole sported wooden arrows that pointed down the many paths surrounding the small clearing.  Instead of destinations, there were names engraved into them.  Some of the markers were blank.  ***Are you preparin' for new arrivals?* **she asked her guide.  He nodded cautiously, and then gestured for her to enter the cross-roads.  _

_Rogue stood and walked towards the arrows.  Leaves from the last fall were damp under her feet.  Tiny blades of grass and other plants poked out of the wet carpet, eager for the meager sunlight that the budding trees allowed to touch them.  The light glinted off one of the signs, the one that read Eric.  His name wasn't carved like most of the others, but letters of gold were set in the wood instead.  She admired the fine craftsmanship, but narrowed her eyes.  ***This was made lovingly,* she remarked cruelly.****  *You are still devoted ta him?  I thought you agreed Eric was rotten ta tha magnetic core an' had a heart of iron.***_

_Pietro seized her from behind.  His body was older, stronger than the real Quicksilver.  Her servant whispered into her ear harshly, "My father -Eric- is not Magneto.  One is a man.  The other is a monster created by monstrous men.  I have done everything you have asked of me.  I saved you from insanity, I created this Wonderland for you to frolic in, I became your cheerful servant...I am yours, are you happy?  Uphold your side of the promise and leave me and mine be.  You call that place where you live Real World, but for us, this is real.  If you tell your precious professor to remove us, it will be murder."_

_His touch left quickly as it had come.  Rogue turned to face the bench.  Pietro stood behind it with one hand lightly resting on the frame, head bowed.  For a moment, he looked truly beaten and broken, but she threw the notion away.  Whatever he thought, whatever they all thought, they were only transient minds.  They were only copies.  Nothing they said or did was real because they were not real.  It was not murder to destroy a floppy disk.  It was not even a loss if the data it held was still in the original computer.  Pietro's copy was only a tool.  When its knowledge held no further use to her, she would delete it.  _

_Rogue looked at the blank signs.  She was not a piece of real estate.  ***Destroy those,*** she ordered**.  **They vanished and her temper cooled.  The abandoned puppy look returned to his face and she sighed.  She shouldn't treat Pietro so unfairly.  Like he had said before, her mind was the Real World to him.  How could he know any better?  She wouldn't blame a puppy for not understanding what was wrong, but she would be firm and teach Pietro what was right.  Who knew, maybe she would grow attached and keep the tool as a toy._

_She looked at the different signs.  Pietro had given her a game to play.  The girl allowed a small smile as she realized what the boy had done.  ***You know what I intend ta do when yeh are obsolete?***_

_The wince was audible in his voice.  "I am not a fool."_

_*No, Pietro isn't.  You knew I would delete you when you were of no more use, so you sought ta become somethin' I would keep.*   She smiled and brushed her lips with a fingertip.  *It worked.  I won't delete Pietro's memories from my mind.*  Rogue locked her arms behind her back and studied the many names. _

**_*Kurt.*_**

_Pietro dropped the subject quickly as she had and played along.  "Nice try.  Blue boy has mixed feelings about this issue, but hasn't shed a tear yet.  At least not my Kurt."_****

**_*Do you always call the absorbed minds yours?*_**

_"Ever since you put me in charge of this little piece of mental real estate, yes.  Everyone is happy now and rarely bothers you.  I am the caretaker of this world; the Father, I suppose.  Make your second guess."_

_Rogue thought for a while.  The tears had been guilty.  She had assumed Kurt should feel guilty.  Two minutes of Anita's blood gushing out could have been prevented if he hadn't bailed.  Perhaps it was  someone who feels guilt when it isn't his fault.  She looked back to Pietro.  ****_

**_*Scott.*_**

_Laughter  rang  about her.  "One Eye?  Don't make me laugh more than I already have, girl.  When was the last time you saw Scott cry?  Never, and do you know why?  Because he can't.  Boy doesn't have tear ducts anymore, just little power plants.  He's forgotten what it means to cry.  Real tears anyway.  Couldn't be him.  Last shot."  _

_Pietro looked away to study his creation, from the shadows the trees cast to the occasional bird hopping on a branch.  He stared at them, ignoring her look.  To Rogue, he looked guilty._****

**_*You.*_**

"Hmm?" he asked without looking away from a crimson cardinal.****

**_*You're tha one.  Now spill.  I've beaten your little game.  Why were you cryin'?*_**_  Rogue grew annoyed and a little angry.  He, of all of them, knew how she would react when he affected her physical body.  Despite that, she would have dropped it instantly if he had come right out and asked forgiveness.  Instead, Pietro had tried to fool her with a game.  If she had guessed wrongly three times, he could have refused to tell her who the culprit was and she would have seen nothing amiss.  He just would have been like the real Pietro: always teasing and unable to give a straight answer._

_He sighed and looked away, trying to hide the fat tears rolling down his face.  "I'll answer your questions in the order you gave them.  You asked me if I loved you.  To answer that, I need to show you something."  He walked past Rogue to the cross-roads, giving her a wide berth while trying not to be obvious about it.  Instead of reaching to touch one of the arrows, he knelt and dug through the mound of soggy leaves.  Eventually, a large stone imbedded in the ground appeared.  Engraved in it was the word _Pietro_.  He traced the letters and the trees blurred._

_They were in a spacious but cozy room.  On an easy chair that was wide enough to fit four people in Rogue's opinion, was a woman and her two children.  It was obvious they were related.  They all had the same delicate features and fair complexions.  One child was asleep, lodged to her mother's hip.  She resembled the mother very much.  They had the same nose, lips, and hair.  The little boy seemed almost out of place with the two.  His white hair clashed against their raven heads.  His body was much lighter and narrower than the females' bodies.  He leaned against his mother's chest and sat in her lap.  _

_The entire thing seemed like a wax exhibit.  They held perfectly still like statues or like God had hit pause on the Universal remote.  Pietro sat down on the floor in front of the trio.  "Allow me."  He snapped his fingers and the scene sprang to life._

_"One mo' story, Mama.  Pwease?"  _

_The woman laughed and tickled his neck.  He giggled and squirmed out of the way, but she just ran her fingernails up his spine instead.  She didn't stop until she had gotten his armpits, tummy, and feet as well.  Finally, she let her son catch his breath.  She used the short silence to say, "Another story, is that what you want?  I've already talked Wanda to sleep.  Isn't that enough for you?  No, I must talk you into dreaming too.  Old story or new story, Pietro?"_

_"New story."_

_There was an exasperated sight on the mother's part.  "But you always want a new story.  Can't I tell an old favorite?"_

_"You said I could have a new story, an' I want one."_

_"Oh, all right.  Have I told you of the story of the Goddess, the Maiden, and the Boy?"_

_"No."  Pietro shook his head to prove his words.  _

_"Very well.  In ancient times where gods were common as horses, there was one Goddess who…yes, Pietro?"_

_"Daddy says dere's only one God."_

_She laughed, "That's because he's Jewish.  I tell anyone who asks what my religion is none of his business, especially if he's a holy man.  That way, I can tell all the stories, not just the ones that say there's only one God.  _

_The mother pulled a bit of hair behind her ear.  "Anyway, the Goddess was ruler of the Dreaming World.  Over the centuries she grew lonely and looked in the Waking World for a husband.  After a long and hard search, she came upon a boy not yet a man.  He possessed all the qualities in a husband, but was still a dreamer for his youth was not yet entirely lost to him.  She began to court the youth, entreating him to marry her and come live with her before his birthday, when the god of the Waking World would turn him completely into a man.  Every night he dreamed of her and she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen."_

_"Like you."_

_"Oh, she was much prettier than me."_

_"That imbossiple," was Pietro's fierce response._

_"Well gods do _impossible_ things all the time," she stressed the word her son had mispronounced, "so believe it.  So every night, the boy looked at her radiant face and promised to join her forever the next night.  Every morning he awoke and went to say goodbye, but then he would see his friend the Maiden.  Every day the girl grew more beautiful and the boy forgot about his oath.  The Goddess would have grown angry with any other mortal and sent her Nightmares to slay him in his sleep, but her love staid her hand.  _

_"As the Boy's birthday grew near, the Goddess became desperate.  When he became a man, he could no longer join her in the Dreaming World.  She called upon her powers and the next day, neither the Maiden nor the Boy awakened but remained in the Dreaming World.  _

_She called them both to her court and told the boy he had to make his final decision.  He looked upon them both and...sleep tight, Pietro."_

_Pietro snapped his fingers again and the scene rewound back to where it had started.  "The boy chose the Goddess," he finished.  _

**_*Some story.*_**

_"It was the thought that counted.  She was trying to tone down the story anyway.  Gruesome thing, really.  _

_Pietro turned to look up at her from the floor.  "The Goddess didn't really love the Boy; she just wanted him.  But the Boy loved the Maiden.  The Goddess was beautiful, but every morning he looked back and only remembered being in the clutches of a monster.  So every night he told the Goddess he would be hers willingly if only he could say goodbye to all his friends.  When sleep came again, he talked all night about some new person he had met and not had a chance to say farewell to.  The Goddess was forgetful, as many gods were, and always failed to remember how many times the Boy had used his trick on her.  Eventually, she grew wise to the ruse and locked the Boy in eternal slumber.  _

_"But even as she held him, she could not covet his soul until he was her husband, something he could only become willingly.  Without his soul, she was unable to stop the Boy from aging.  If he became a man, he would fall from her grasp forever.  The Goddess grew impatient and set her Nightmares upon the Boy, hoping to torture him into submission.  The Nightmares, terrible black steeds with iron hooves, instead galloped away from the Boy to a far off corner of the Dreaming World.  They set upon the Maiden in her dreams.  Her death, and not his, was the Boy's fear.  He begged the Goddess to spare her and do with him what she pleased.  _

_"The Goddess refused and killed the Maiden with her own hands.  The Boy collapsed, his heart in pieces.  It was then the Goddess gave him a terrible choice.  If he became her husband, she would make him forget the Maiden altogether.  If he refused, she would chain the body to him.  Even after he became a man and left the Dreaming World, he would never be able to forget that he was chained to the Maiden.  Her death was his fault.  If he had done as the Goddess wished in the beginning, his love would be alive._

_"Broken, the Boy accepted.  The End."_

**_*Gruesome is right."  _**

_"My mother's family -the Maximoffs- was quite gruesome.  Eric came off as something of a white knight to Mama."****_

_She snorted at that unlikelihood.**  *How does that whole thing relate ta my questions?  Or have you been stallin'?***_

_"There are...parallels between that tale and my life.  For one, I'm locked in a sort of Dreaming World, only there is no escape but Death, even though you insist on calling it deletion.  And you don't love me either.  You think you do, but in truth, you only wish for the touch."  She was held in his arms and he kissed her.  He pulled back sadly.  _

_"Do I love you?  What would you do to me if I said I hated you?  That I prayed every minute of this Hellish life that you end up in a permanent coma so we all can be free to live without fear?"  Pietro's copy looked into her eyes that became so cruel so easily.  "I really don't want to think about it."  He shuddered and tears began to flow down his face.  He stared again into Rogue's eyes.  "Do I love you?"  _

_Pietro kissed her again.  He finally let go, but only so he could pull her closer to him.  "God, yes.  Yes I love you.  You are the Goddess of my world.  My soul is in your hands.  Please, please don't delete it.  Don't copy it over with a newer version of Pietro.  If you do, then we will all become characters in Mama's story.  The new Pietro will be the Boy, you will be the Goddess, and Anita will be the Maiden.  Because I don't love her, but he does._

_"I cried because you don't deserve to go through that, for all your cruelty towards us.  I feel guilty because of what could happen to you.  I love you; I can't hide that anymore.  But if you ever come to feel anything more for me than you would a toy and absorb Pietro again, then your heart will break when I don't remember.  Farewell, Goddess of My World."  _

"Rogue?"  

The girl opened her eyes, startled.  They were waiting in line to cross the intersection.  Thankfully, it was the last one before the straight road home.  Their car was the only one that would turn straight judging by the blinking turn signals in front of them.  Scott looked at her in a way Rogue thought meant that he was concerned.  She could never read his expressions correctly with his sunglasses blocking the view.  

"Yeah, Scott?"

There was a shift in the line and he moved forward a space.  "Has one of them been bothering you again?"  Just like Pietro's copy, Rogue didn't have to ask who "them" was.  

"One of them got a little too sad 'cause of Anita.  I just had ta go in an' talk ta him.

"It, not him.  The professor can't give you the pep talk right now, so I'll have to do."  

Scott moved up another place in line.  "No matter what these copies tell you, they aren't real.  One of those copies; it's just a random collection of memories and habits that it tries to use against you to gain the upper hand.  You can't let it trick you like that.  It can't feel emotion; it can only push a memory of it at you."

Another place in line.

"It can't have reacted to Anita.  Only a real person could do that.  Just stay firm, get that information you say you need from it, and then the professor will go in and delete it.  Remember the analogy?  That they are only floppy disks, copies of the real thing?  There is nothing on one of those discs that isn't in the original source.  Just transfer the useful data to you and then destroy the disk.  That simple."

Scott drove through the intersection and sped up, a little.  Though he was impatient to find out about the girl, it wasn't worth their lives.  A little voice at the back of her head told her so.  _"Scott has always thought like that," _it continued.  _"I should know.  He's wrong about us though."_

**_*Shut up.*_**  Scott's copy scampered away.

Rogue looked out at the world again.  She knew Scott and Xavier were right, but something seemed amiss.  The real Pietro didn't act anything like his copy.  Either Maximoff hid his maturity and deep emotions very well or the copy had changed.  It was impossible, but the second one seemed more likely.  Something was different about the Pietro in her mind.  It wasn't like it had stopped changing while the real boy moved on ahead.  It was as if it had gone on in a completely different path from Pietro.  Became its own person.  He was a real..."

"It's just a copy, Rogue."  She turned back to look at Scott.  The professor's words repeated by her friend drove out the false thoughts.  Xavier practically lived in the mind, of course he was right about them.  How could he be wrong?  They were just copies.

"Just a copy," she agreed.  Scott smiled and looked back at the road.  Rogue leaned into her seat. _ A faint voice behind her said sadly, "Predictable as ever."  Rogue whirled around to see Pietro's copy standing in the medieval hallway that led to the mall.  She shoved it back into that exotic place and snapped her fingers.  A door of adamantine sprang up between them.  An _R_ was cast into the metal.  She smiled grimly and walked back to Real World.   _     

***

Okay, that was a little different.  If it seems...intense, blame my "Thief of Spirits" fic.  Wow, that thing is extreme.  Affected my general writing, it did.  

If anyone is confused about what my font changing means, here are some hints.  Just think that _italics are scenes/actions/dialogues in someone's head.  __*This_*_ means a projected thought and ****__*_this*** **_means a more powerful/important mind is speaking.  Do I have to explain what **_*this*_ means? __**_

****

     


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